It is still a while before the season really kicks into high gear, but skiing two days in a row is definitely helping me get my legs ready for long hard days on the planks. We only planned on skiing on Saturday, but ended up heading to Loveland again on Sunday for a demo day put on by Bent Gate.

Saturday – Day 6

We had a tasty breakfast, then hit the road to Loveland. We weren’t early, but we weren’t late. It was just right for this time of the season. Loveland was reporting about four inches of snow which we were totally fine with, every little bit counts. Holy bajeepers was it cold. And by Cold I mean frigid. Single digits. No sun. Amazingly, though, there was no wind. It was so still Evan and I could hardly believe it.

We were unbelievably pumped on our newest addition to our ski outfits. Homemade face masks. Both of us were pleasantly surprised at how much warmer they kept us and how much more tolerable the cold was with out faces all covered and cozy behind our fleece lined skulls (for him) and monkeys (for her).

I like to think my monkeys are Sleepy Monkeys. They are covering their mouths because they are yawning.

We skied pretty much every open run and forced ourselves to do top to bottom runs to get our legs nice and tired. We rested on the lift.

Finally in the mid-afternoon, the cold was too much for me to handle, so we hit the road.

Sunday: Bent Gate Demos – Day 7

We weren’t even planning on skiing both days of the weekend until we heard about the Bent Gate demon on Sunday and had a friend that was planning on going and was interested in carpooling. Trying out a whole ton of skis sounds pretty darn fun, right? I had no idea how much fun it would be! We were parked, dressed, and ready to check out some boards by 8:30am. Early bird gets the skis worm. I got all set-up on my first pair of skis, Rossignol S7s and jumped on Chair 1. Sunday was much clearer and a few degrees warmer, but I think still in the single digits. The view from the top of Chair 1 was gorgeous.

The Rossi S7s kicked ass. They held an edge on hard pack, at high-speed, and in variable snow conditions. They were soft enough to hold a line through bumps, but stiff enough to carve, and playful enough to feel poppy. I could see myself owning a pair and getting rid of the rest of my fleet of skis. Okay, enough of that, I’ll write full reviews some other time.

A few runs in, I had to warm up my feet, of course. So I hit the lodge for a bit. Then it was back to testing more skis out! I ended up trying seven pairs of skis, only one pair I had been on before, but in a different length. I skied: Rossignol S7s, Rossignol S3s, DPS Yvette 112, G3 Jam, Icelantic Keepers, Icelantic Oracle (I skied 175s which was totally unnecessary), and the Black Diamond Scarlett.

I had such a blast trying out different skis. It taught me a lot about what types of skis work best for my skiing style and a lot about how I ski. It was really interesting to compare notes with Evan and our friend who was with us. We are all very different skiers and had a wide variety of opinions on different skis with the exception of the Rossi S7 which was the group favorite. We all want them. That’s the bad thing about demoing a bunch of skis when you aren’t really in the market for any skis. I know, life is tough.

Near the end of the day the sun disappeared behind clouds, some flurries rolled in, and the air got mighty cold, as if it wasn’t before.

I basically skied from 8:30 to a bit past 2:30 with just a few quick stops which is a pretty good day for me, especially this early in the season. If there were more skis to demo, I probably would have kept on skiing. I was having such a blast putting on different planks and ripping down the mountain. But, alas, the demo was over and I was ready for a beer.

Thanks Bent Gate and Loveland for putting on an awesome demo!